


i'll be coming back for you

by spiritsontheroof



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Everyone else is just mentioned except Jack and Mac, Feelings, Getting Together, Jack Dalton Loves Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), M/M, Tiberius Kovacs, Worried Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), coming home, idk how to tag this, paperclips, this is not good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23679817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiritsontheroof/pseuds/spiritsontheroof
Summary: It’s a stupid thing to be worried about. Mac knows that. He doesn’t need Riley or Bozer or Desi to tell him he’s all wound up over nothing. He’s alright, they assure him. Jack will call when he can, they promise.
Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 68





	i'll be coming back for you

**Author's Note:**

> okay, so this is my first work in the fandom so please be nice to me I tried really hard. title is a one direction song. find me on tumblr! https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/spiritsontheroof

It’s a stupid thing to be worried about. Mac knows that. He doesn’t need Riley or Bozer or Desi to tell him he’s all wound up over nothing. He’s alright, they assure him. Jack will call when he can, they promise.

But the thing is, it’s been almost a month. No phone calls, no texts, nothing. Matty hasn’t even heard from him, can’t get any intel on how the search for Kovacs is going, and that’s the part that makes Mac’s stomach churn, makes his head spin, makes him feel like he’s going to puke every time he thinks about Jack for too long. Mac tries to stay optimistic, tells himself Jack’s alright, that he doesn’t need Mac out there with him, he can take care of himself. Mac knows it’s true, but it doesn’t sooth the knot in his stomach any more than it does when Riley echoes those same sentiments at him every time he mentions it to her with a knot in his throat and tears threatening to pool.

Mac thinks – no, Mac knows – that if Jack knew it would be a while before he could talk to them again, he would have let them know. Maybe he did, Mac thinks to himself, maybe you just didn’t notice that’s what he was saying. So Mac reads over the last few texts he’s gotten from Jack, all from various disposable numbers because it’s safer that way, just to see if he missed anything, not because he misses Jack and this is like a balm for the hole in his chest that’s been there ever since Jack has been gone, thank you very much.

[February 17th, 11:16 AM] _Hey, Mac. Checking in with you. I’m okay, so don’t you go worryin’ about me. See you when I see you, genius. Be safe out there._

[March 3rd, 3:08 PM] _Matty said you almost got yourself killed because you ran off with no one watching your back. You know better than that, Mac. You are too damn smart to be so stupid. Let Desi watch your back. I’ll be back on your six before you know it._

[March 23rd, 12:01 AM] _Not quite midnight where I’m at, but it should be just after in LA, and I wanted to be the first to say it: Happy 30th birthday, Mac. Build a bomb, watch Die Hard, and drink a beer for me. We’ll celebrate when I get home._

[March 23rd, 12:06 AM] _Miss you. See you soon._

That was the last message. A happy birthday, I miss you, and a promise that was just vague enough to get Mac’s hopes up. Mac had gone to bed that night smiling, gone into work the next day feeling a little less disdain for his birthday and less defeated about turning thirty, and that was the last day he felt almost normal. Now he lives in constant anxiety about where Jack is, how he’s doing, if he’s even still alive. He pushes the last thought from his mind, refuses to let himself think it or put weight behind it before putting his phone in the nightstand and pretending to fall asleep.

Things start getting weird toward the 6-weeks-since-anyone-heard-from-Jack marker, Mac notices. Riley starts changing the subject anytime someone brings up Jack, Desi stops teasing him so much, starts treating him like something that could break if she says the wrong thing. Matty snaps anytime Mac asks if she’s heard anything about the mission, telling him to focus on his own missions, that Jack is a big boy who does not need you looking after him, Blondie.

It’s all tense and uptight and Mac just stops talking about him after that. He doesn’t like what this new behavior implies, doesn’t like that he cannot figure out why they are all acting so strange, doesn’t like the idea that they’re all keeping something from him. So, he stops talking about Jack, only thinks about him in fleeting moments in the field and in long, silent, lonely moments in the solace of his own house.

Mac is standing out on the deck, twisting a paper clip with shaking fingers, and he wonders for a minute what he’ll do if Jack really did get killed out there, looking for Kovacs. Wonders how he’ll go on, if he’d ever be able to clear his mind enough to work in the field again, because he was barely able to do it when he was sure Jack was still alive. The thought makes him sick, of Jack in a box, of a folded-up flag, of no more missions or Die Hard marathons or six packs or anything they always did together. You should have said it, Mac tells himself. You shouldn’t have let him go with a handshake. You should have hugged him, told him to be safe, let him know you loved him but you didn’t and now he might be dead, now you might never see him again, now you -

“Feel like company?” Mac hears behind him, breaking the downward spiral in his mind, making him drop his paperclip, folded into the shape of a heart.

He turns with his eyes squeezed shut because he’s so sure he’s hallucinating, so sure the long days and even longer sleepless nights have caught up to him, and holds his breath, and then...

There he is. Jack.

It takes Mac a minute and he stands frozen for what feels like hours but was an entire 3 seconds before he’s across the wooden deck and wrapping his arms around Jack.

“You’re home,” Mac breathes into his shoulder, fisting his hands into the back of Jack’s stupid leather jacket. “I missed you.”

Jack wraps his arms around Mac just as tightly, holding him as close as he can get him. “Had to come back and get my boy,” he says with a smile, rubbing a hand down Mac’s back. “I missed you, Mac.”

Mac pulls away and just looks at him for a minute and he really thinks he might cry from how relieved he is because Jack is here, grinning at Mac like the Cubs won the World Series again and yeah, okay, Mac sheds a tear. “It’s really good to see you. It’s been so long since I heard from you, I thought...” he trails off, doesn’t finish the thought because he knows Jack knows what he’s getting at.

“I’m sorry. We caught Kovacs and everyone else got to go home, but I had to stay, do mission reports, and do debriefs, go through hoop after hoop with the military higher ups. I wasn’t allowed to give my location and the army couldn’t disclose my status because as of then, it was classified. Matty kept calling after me and they wouldn’t tell her. I knew you guys would worry, I tried to get back fast as I could but I’m tellin’ you, man, I didn’t think it was ever gonna end.” Jack explains, placing a hand on Mac’s shoulder. “Come on, what are you cryin’ for? I'm right here, I’m alright, I promise.” Jack assured him.

Mac chuckled and shook his head, wiping his face on his sleeve. “I know, I know you are. I just... God, I was so scared, you know? Because Matty started getting snappy and Riley refused to talk about you and Desi started treating me like I was a fragile little thing and it all felt so wrong. Like they all knew something I didn’t, and I just knew the worst had happened. I couldn’t even bring myself to ask what was wrong because I was afraid of the answer.” Mac said, looking away from Jack and trying to steady his shaking voice because this was a lot and Mac was overwhelmed and barely holding himself together. He looks back at Jack, who’s already looking at him with something Mac can’t place but makes his face feel like it’s on fire, like Jack can see right through him, and Mac feels exposed. “I was afraid Matty was going to say you were gone, and I thought if I just never asked I could pretend you were okay.” Mac pushed his fingers through his blonde locks and sighed, sitting down in one of the deck chairs and looking down at the faded stain on the wood. “Because if I thought about you being gone for too long, I was afraid I’d fall apart. That I'd never recover and never be able to clear my head of all the things I should have said before you were gone.”

Jack just listens, watching Mac fidget like he always does when he feels exposed. He stands in front of Mac, hands in his pockets, and resists the urge to push Mac’s hair from his eyes. “You don’t gotta worry about it now, Mac. I’m home and I’m not leaving again, I can’t. I was worried sick about you. Not that I don’t trust Desi, I do, she’s great, but I just knew I had to get back and watch your six or somethin’ bad was gonna happen.” He says

There’s a silence that lingers between them, something heavy that holds all the things they’ve never said, things that have hung in the air since they were in the sandbox together that they don’t talk about. Jack paces for a minute, wondering if maybe it’s time to talk about those things, to just lay his cards on the table and see how his hand plays.

“Hey. Look at me.” Jack says from across the deck after a few minutes. He put a few feet of space between them, like he wouldn’t feel so vulnerable if he wasn’t staring directly into Mac’s blue eyes.

Mac looks up and cocks his head and God, Jack has to look away for a minute to collect himself again, because he forgot how hard thinking could be when Mac was looking at him like that.

“You said there were things you should have said before I left. Well, there’s stuff I shoulda told you, too.” Jack says after he finds it in himself to meet Mac’s eyes again. “I should have told you that I cared about you, you know? That you meant more to me than partners or friends or anything like that. I should have said you mean the world to me and the only way I’d get through this is knowing you’d be waitin’ on me. I should have said all that. But instead I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even hug you. I’m sorry for that. But I’m tellin’ it all to you now and you don’t need to hurt that big brain of yours tryin’ to tell me how you feel, because I know, alright?” Jack says and he chuckles a little.

Mac stands up, walks the three feet between them and smiles at Jack. “You know, that was a really long-winded way of saying you love me.” He teases. When Jack looks at him, all fond annoyance, Mac just has to say it. “I love you.”

Jack lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He reached out, pulled Mac against him, smiled as he reached up and pushed Mac’s hair outta his eyes. “I know you do, darlin’.” He drawls before pressing his lips against Mac’s.

Mac thinks it’s perfect, the scratch of Jack’s stubble, his callouses sliding against Mac’s skin as Jack’s hands slide up under his shirt to press into the warm skin of his hips, and he tells himself that he’s got no reason to worry or to be anxious because, finally, after all this time, he feels whole again.


End file.
